Loss can't phase 'Dogs' morale
Tough schedule won't affect team's self-confidence
Andrew Riggs / The Collegian
Fresno State coach Ruben Nieves uses timeouts as an opportunity to motivate his team. The Bulldogs routinely put together rallies against sixth-ranked Santa Clara that kept them in the match. |
By Darrell Copeland III
The Collegian
The loss column is already beginning to stack up for the Fresno State volleyball team, but so are the positive attitudes.
Second-year head coach Ruben Nieves’ positive attitude has already rubbed off on his team, much of which is made up of freshmen.
In the final game of the Fresno State Invitational, the Bulldogs (1-2) fell victim to the sixth-ranked Santa Clara Broncos (3-0), dropping the match in three straight games 23-30, 16-30 and 20-30. With the win, the Broncos take home the tournament championship while the Bulldogs finished third.
Time after time the Bulldogs were forced to rally from behind and time after time Nieves called the timeout that preceded the comeback with a lesson in positive thinking.
“It’s the way I coach,” Nieves said. “It’s a learned coaching style that I’ve become comfortable with. I think it’s the way to coach any team, but it’s especially important when you’ve got nine out of 17 players who are freshmen.”
Nieves’ stubbornness to be patient was tried often throughout the match as the Bulldogs committed a total of 23 errors on their way to hitting at a .082 clip.
Andrew Riggs / The Collegian
Two of Fresno State’s leaders on a freshmen-laden team are Alison Pitton (left) and Alisha McKee, both of whom combined for this block against Santa Clara. |
“We didn’t play the way we know we can play,” senior outside hitter Alison Pitton said. “We’re a lot better team this year than we were last year. We just didn’t put our best foot forward this match.”
Pitton also buys into the Nieves belief system, which she says has had a positive affect on the team’s ability to be cohesive on and off the court.
“He’s definitely positive in what he does,” Pitton said. “We don’t need a coach that’s going to bash us and bring us down.”
Nieves couldn’t be further from the bashing trail, but instead chooses to motivate his team by pointing out when their character is being tested.
“He told us that throughout the year we’re going to be tested on our character a lot and right then and there was a moment that we were being tested with our character,” Pitton said.
Don’t think that all of the positive talk has the Bulldogs forgetting about winning though, it’s just that Nieves believes that his team must grow as a unit while competing to win matches.
“The disappointment isn’t so much in losing a match, it’s we think we can do better than that,” Nieves said.
“We want to show the community what kind of team we are and we didn’t think we were that team this afternoon.”
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